“You ought to know. Your passing directly affects half of the world; the other half of the world is currently evaluating the impact!” Serov coldly laughed. From the beginning after Stalin’s death, traces of cracks begin to form within the Socialist camps. These cracks are due to Khrushchev ‘s criticism of Stalin. Khrushchev was a nobody at first, and nobody took notice. Yet after decades, it slowly deepened where it will thoroughly seek to destroy the unity within the Socialist camps.
If you are a tyrant, why did the people heartfeltly cry for you? Serov simply did not dare to trust his own eyes; he has never encountered this kind of scene. Only the scene from the Ten Mile Long Street to send off the Premier can be compared with the scene before him, but at that time, Serov wasn’t even born yet. If he now believed what he saw with his own eyes, he’s sure Stalin received lots of adoration and respect. But if one does not think so, then why does the evaluation Stalin gets decades after is only the single world tyrant?
TL Note: Ten Mile Long Street Sends off the Premier comes from an essay describing the scene where the people mourned after the death of the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Enlai
“If Stalin never expanded Industry, retained Serfdom, and let the country’s widespread illiteracy continued, one cannot say that things might be better!” At this moment, Serov’s mind was buzzing with ideas. “If people weren’t educated, and knowledge was monopolised in the hands of the few, the commonfolk will lose the ability to think. These people would be no better than animals! Won’t it be easier to rule over these people? Stalin, you gave the Soviet people strong industry, a majestic position on the international stage and advanced its technology. Yet amongst the educated, who knew that in their eyes, you had become the most ruthless tyrant in Russian history? Compared with the Soviet Union you’ve built, people would rather remember the dead Russian Empire. Such thinking is not something that Serov did not understand. In his previous world, there were such groups of people on the Chinese Internet. They would endlessly remember the Republic of China, where people starved everywhere, and they even glorified its model. Yet, they ignore the widespread famine and chaos, only placing their eyes on the microscope to find the microscopic bright spot. Or they’ll look at the golden decades or the Great Scholars. If the Great Scholars needed illiterate folk to set off, Serov would rather have all the Great Masters enter the concentration camps!”
TL Note: The Great Scholars were Chinese thinkers whose works during the Republic of China era influenced China to this day
Stalin’s unintended passing was like a ten magnitude earthquake, wrecking the once orderly Soviet Union into nothing. Looking at the tremendous visible strength of nuclear weapons, while atomic bombs could only kill people, all of Socialism would be destroyed in the following big catfight. The first signs of such a development were appearing.
On the second day after Stalin’s passing, the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, the Council of Ministers and the highest in the Soviet praesidium held a joint conference to pass a resolution: appointing Malenkov as the Premier in the Council of Ministers. Kaganovich became the First Vice-Premier of the Council of Ministers, and Voroshilov was appointed as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ( the head of State). Molotov also became the Vice-Premier of the Council of Ministers as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. After a week passed, Malenkov resigned from his post of Central Secretariat, allowing Khrushchev to join the group of five as the Secretariat. Khrushchev thus became the First Secretary of the Central Committee, but the power of the position was concentrated only with the spreading of Ideology. Political and economic affairs fell into Malenkov and Beria’s grasp.
TL Note: 、
Council of Ministers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Ministers_of_the_Soviet_Union
Malenkov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Malenkov
Kaganovich： https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazar_Kaganovich
Voroshilov：https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kliment_Voroshilov
Molotov：https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyacheslav_Molotov
Khrushchev：https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev
Beria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavrentiy_Beria
“How long has it been? You don’t even care whether the civilians would even accept it!” Serov, at this moment, depended on sources of information, all sorts of newsprints, combined with his analysis and came to a conclusion. The big catfight was beginning. If Serov’s memory served him correctly, Beria would be quickly eliminated. Although his grasp of the KGB was very frightening, it resulted in him being ganged up on by the group.
Placing the newspaper in his hands on a nearby table, Serov frowned while continuing to think, “Next should be the criticising of Stalin, right?” Serov felt like retching while thinking about it. Humans are imperfect animals, yet there will always be people thinking that they are perfect. As long as one is human, there will be good and evil. They don’t believe that there would be people that would never have done a good deed in their entire lives. Since Stalin has already passed, you could criticise all that could be criticised, yet you could not whip the corpse. Looking at Khrushchev’s later behaviour, all of the opposition towards Stalin is a joke. He even repeated Stalin’s mistake.
TL Note: Whipping the corpse was seen as a great insult in Ancient China
Stalin made Stalin’s mistake, Khrushchev made Khrushchev’s mistake. As long as one is human, they will never guarantee that they will never make a mistake. Where they will be able to develop smoothly, never losing while constantly having the advantage. A Communist society would have been formed earlier.
“Valia!” Serov immediately realised how stupid he was as those words left his mouth. The Serov, with no other alternative, moved the hand-cranked telephone, which was quickly becoming an antique by his side. With great difficulty, he was able to be put through on the phone. “Valia, come to my office for a while…….”
Valia was Serov’s secretary. While she was responsible for handling some trifles, sometimes, she would also assist Serov in drafting scripts for his speeches. She was a student of Kiev’s Taras Shevchenko University, who joined the workforce after graduation and was assigned to Baku. Generally, to some women, the current Baku wasn’t the best choice. Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad and places like these were the most sought after by students. Yet Valia was very confident of her abilities, believing that relying on her abilities could one day let her obtain the things she desired.
“Secretariat, you called for me?” Not making Serov wait for too long, Valia came over immediately. She had a devilishly hot figure, the golden hair on her head letting out dazzling waves of light. Her short miniskirt hung by her slender thighs, emphasising the unsurpassed perfection of her figure. That girl had bright pupils. Its brightness and clarity were as bright as the multitude of stars. Her grandeur expression naturally revealed itself, making others having no choice but to exclaim in admiration of the radiance of her beauty.
TL Note: bright as the multitude of stars: An idiom for her being extremely talented.
“If you were born in America, you’ll definitely make it into Hollywood!” In Serov’s past life, the Otakus on the Internet constantly fetishised Slavic women. To be honest, Slavic women are beautiful. Compared with women from Western Europe, Slavic women spanned across Asia, and there were few gentle and beautiful Asian women. Thus, in the eyes of those from Eastern Asia, they were much better than those fair-haired and blue-eyed women from Western Europe.
As Valia entered, Serov’s line of thinking strayed away, resulting in him even forgetting what he wanted to do. Uncensored words spilt from his mouth. As expected, at that time, Valia’s complexion changed utterly. As a woman who thought highly of themselves, other than her appearance, she was also utterly confident in her abilities.
No one could make light of what was inside one’s unconscious, but clearly, the Serov now was not too strict. What was most important, however, America and the USSR’s current relations were, without a doubt, hostile with one another. The overall confrontation between the two sides hasn’t spread worldwide, but it did not seem too far away at that time. Domestic education took up an anti-American angle. All affairs regarding the US was thought about from a different perspective.
“Comrade Secretariat, please watch your words!” Valia’s pretty face wore a trace of anger, and with a remindful tone that was neither too loud nor too soft, “ I’m not that kind of decadent woman!”
“I did not mean it that way!” Serov cried out in indignation. He had only come to the USSR for about half a month, and there were currently some situations that he was still unclear about. After all, he never lived during the period of the Cold War. Who would have thought that some small talk would unexpectedly turn into a question of principle?
“Alright, alright, I apologise!” It would be better to admit one’s fault. He then firmly said, “I’m only praising you, but it seemed the comparison is not suitable. Valia, please prepare a script for a speech. I’ve been preparing to go to the State Oil University for a trip in the past few days. Why don’t you come with me together!
“Alright!” Speaking of work, Valia immediately demonstrates the capable and efficient side of her. After asking Serov a couple of sentences, she left soon after.
“I messed up!” Serov did not whether to laugh or cry, mumbling out his complaint. Yet this matter also woke him up. This period isn’t the 21st century which would come later. It’s not like a couple of words that could bring trouble didn’t exist, praising the US: to put it lightly seemed like blind worship of foreign goods and ideas. Most importantly, one should prepare to be arrested and receive ideological remoulding.
Thinking of this, Serov sighed, “Control is too strict. When things reach an extreme, they can only move in the opposite direction. Some people are very likely unable to handle such control. Once they receive information about the outside world, no matter whether one is good or bad, they’ll see it akin to an imperial edict. They will begin to be suspicious towards their own’s country National reports. Everyone is drunk while I’m the only one awake; I shall become a foreign spy!”
To change the current situation, as long as one makes progress until they reach a position to influence the entire country, the Serov now could only feel humbled. Thinking of not gathering junk in Russia a couple of decades later, the ending to the USSR will have to be rewritten. Letting humanity’s largest experimental society in history continue onwards; Never has Serov felt this grandiose ever at any single point in time. Leaving behind his mark in history was intangible thus enticing, but the idea has already firmly attracted Serov.
“I appear to have the potential to be a great person! My thoughts seemed to be enlightened!” Reading the news of the concentration camp prisoner being released, Serov felt that the USSR had a chance of being rescued.
1953 March 26th, Beria handed “A report on amnesties” to the praesidium in the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. Beria also gave “Draft of the praesidium in the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party’s resolution on amnesties” on the second day. It hasn’t even been a month after Stalin’s passing; Beria and Malenkov were exposing Stalin’s offences as well as criticising the problem of his cult of personality. The higher authorities seemed to have reached a tacit understanding. Therefore, amidst a reinvestigation of “The Case of Kremlin’s Doctor Spy” and other injustices, Beria let the Central Committee read details concerning themselves in the inquiry report.
The Soviet Union’s seemingly suffocating Control was beginning to relax. Even those most stringently monitored within the party appear to have the same amount of freedom as the commonfolk of the USSR. In the past, such things could only be dreamed of but never be attained. Speaking of it, this was very strange. Stalin’s monitoring of his party has ended. Being a part of the USSR’s commoners now gave much more freedom when compared with party members. From a good point of view, the strict Control eradicated the rotten middle class. During Stalin’s time, the party, other than himself, no one dared to say that they were part of a privileged class.
While you can’t rouse someone pretending to be asleep, these words described the current Serov who felt something was off. Moscow, which was in the midst of significant change, an order was issued to all parts of the USSR. The stifling atmosphere vanished in an instant. It was as if it was never there in the first place.
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